Under Abhishek’s leadership, the party has taken up a high-decibel campaign against the Centre on MGNREGA and PM Awas Yojana funds.
KOLKATA
Months before the 2024 general elections, battleground Bengal presents a strange picture. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is putting up a united front even while its functionaries are being investigated by Central agencies for alleged involvement in multiple scams in which many leaders are already behind bars. On the other hand, challenger BJP, which ought to have been on a roll with so many credible accusations against the TMC, presents a picture of disarray.
The Trinamool Congress has pulled out all stops to project Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Chief Minister and allegedly the prime beneficiary of the scams being investigated, as a mass leader.
Under Abhishek’s leadership, the party has taken up a high-decibel campaign against the Centre for withholding funds under MGNREGA and PM Awas Yojana, conveniently ignoring the fact that the state government did not take corrective and punitive action despite the Centre’s repeated prods.
Abhishek announced that he would lead a movement against the Centre and the programme would kick off from Rajghat on 2 October. The next day, the party staged a dharna at Jantar Mantar and later in the evening, when its leaders went to meet the Minister of State for Rural Development, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, they were unceremoniously pushed out of the Minister’s office.
The bruised Trinamool brigade came back to Kolkata with nothing to show for its efforts. Once back home empty-handed, the party decided to play the victim card to take full advantage of the treatment it received in Delhi. Allowed by a pliant Kolkata Police, the party set up a stage at the gates of the Raj Bhavan, in contravention of permanent prohibitory orders, ostensibly to espouse the cause of deprived MGNREGA job-card holders.
According to political analysts, the actual aim was to help Abhishek emerge as a “mass leader” who could “lead” a movement. After all, Mamata too owed her emergence to her uncompromising image as a street-fighter.
The other aim was to get the public admission of allegiance of the Mamata’s old guard–like Firhad Hakim, Arup Biswas, Subrata Bakshi, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar–who were forced to sing paeans from the stage. These leaders were never well-disposed towards brash Abhishek and had always viewed his ascent in the party with Mamata’s nepotistic support with barely disguised contempt.
To ensure that the focus remained only on Abhishek, party supremo Mamata Banerjee, decided to keep away from office for 10 days on grounds of ill-health.
Trinamool insiders say that there were multiple objectives in that strategy. “The prime motive was to give Abhishek the status of a mass leader because Didi thinks once Abhishek’s stature rises, it will raise his profile among I.N.D.I.A. bloc and help in negotiations and raise his acceptability with the other parties. On the other hand, if there is a possibility that Didi could move to the Centre in a post-election scenario, Abhishek’s succession in West Bengal should not be challenged or questioned by her old guard,” one of Mamata’s key and long-time strategists told The Sunday Guardian.
Bengal’s “friendly” media was primed to support this initiative and it went all out to project Abhishek as a mass leader of a “people’s movement”. Success in panchayat polls and bye-elections despite corruption charges which did not sway voters was touted as Abhishek’s “charisma and acceptability as a mass leader”.
It was truly Abhishek’s abhishek (coronation) as Mamata’s «natural successor». On the other hand, the BJP, which ought to have taken full advantage of the cases of corruption and scams hounding the Trinamool, presented a picture of utter disarray. There are reports of major infighting at all levels. This comes at a time when Amit Shah has set a stiff target of 35 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections which is now looking like a distant dream.
The frustration among BJP karyakartas is on full public display on the streets of Kolkata. Hundreds of BJP workers have been demonstrating outside the party’s two main offices in Central Kolkata and Salt Lake, decrying the current state of the organization and accusing the leadership of neglecting long-time members in favour of newcomers. Demonstrators alleged that the leaders were in league with the Trinamool Congress to weaken the party in the State. The workers demanded that the Central leadership order CBI and ED investigations against the leaders.
Protesters, bearing party flags and chanting slogans against state leaders, including state president Sukanta Majumdar and state general secretary (organization) Amitabha Chakraborty, and Amit Malviya, the National IT head and sah-prabhari for West Bengal, expressed frustration over the dominance of members who had joined the BJP from other political parties.
The unseemly scenes outside the BJP’s long-time headquarters in Murali Dhar Lane in Central Kolkata included party members tearing down and stamping on photographs of the three leaders.
They protested against the sidelining of loyal party veterans while new entrants garnered significant positions within the state and district leadership. Over the past year, the BJP in Bengal has been grappling with internal strife and protests, primarily stemming from organizational changes implemented across various parts of the State. These protests against the party leadership have gathered steam over the past three months.
Last month, Union Minister and Bankura BJP MP Subhas Sarkar found himself confined within a party office in the Bankura district, as party members accused him of side-lining long-time members.
Former party state president Dilip Ghosh accepted that party members were unhappy and said: “It is indeed sad that members feel that they are not getting a patient hearing from the party leadership. It is the duty of the leaders to listen and understand why the party’s backbone–its members–are unhappy and take necessary action.”
Acknowledging the brewing discontent, Samik Bhattacharya, the BJP’s state spokesperson, affirmed the issue’s significance. He said: «It is an issue of concern. But we will address the concerns of our party workers. There might be grievances, and we will strive to address them.
The Trinamool Congress was quick to seize the opportunity to criticize the BJP, characterizing the internal protests as indicative of the turmoil within the State’s primary opposition party. Trinamool Congress MP Santanu Sen remarked: “The BJP has turned into a circus party in West Bengal. Protests and infighting have become commonplace within the Bengal BJP unit. BJP now stands for Bharatiya Joker Party.”
Days before Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to reach Kolkata to inaugurate a few Durga Pujas, the public show of anger is sure to embarrass the party’s state leadership and make it obvious that the BJP has a long way to go before it can even think of reaching the Home Minister’s target.